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C308 ground bolt carrier, now what?

Hello everyone,

I picked up a C308 from Cabelas awhile ago and brought it home for an inspection, here's what I found. The bolt is 1.834, locking piece appears to have some galling on shoulders, firing pin and spring are fine. I checked my bolt carrier and someone has ground off an eighth of an inch to create my cocking tube gap. Finally, I checked bolt gap and its at .007, which is low but in spec. I've taken it to the range and ran 60 rounds of chinese copper washed NATO and it ran flawlessly. Rifle cocked and cycled fine, just shoots about 8 inches high at 100 yards.
My question is how should I start off to fix bolt gap with a ground carrier. Are their any experts that can give me a solution. I hate to mess with this rifle since it actually works correctly. Thank you.

what exactly is the problem you want to fix? If the rifle works well and you can cock it without a hydraulic press then there isn't really a problem. I've not heard of people grinding the bolt carrier to set the distance from the cocking tube but if it ends up with the proper gap it shouldn't be a problem. Your bolt gap of .007 shouldn't be a problem either. Its about right where you want it after its been fired a bit. The only thing I can see is that if you want to swap out parts from other part sets you might need to do some fiddling. Otherwise have fun shooting.

once again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The bolt gap tends to get a little smaller in the first few rounds fired because the barrel can settle against the retaining pin. Its not something you'll see change a lot after that other than for wear. It will take a lot of ammo downrange to wear it.....in the many thousands of rounds. If the rifle is functioning fine at .007 gap than you are really in the ideal area. The idea that you should go to a .015 gap just because you might see some change is like replacing the brakes on your new car because they could wear. As your bolt gap increases the bolt speed increases because the "locking" delay is reduced so its not a good idea just to open it up. I know there is a tendency to want to fiddle and fool with it....its how I ended up in the business of working on guns. It doesn't always make sense when things are working however. Keep an eye on things and if your bolt gap does get smaller go to bigger rollers or try swapping out locking pieces. You will probably have a lot of shooting in before you need to do that though.

I would leave it alone to.I have one with a gap of around .008 or .009.Runs great and had around 1500 rounds threw it.only problem i had was it broke a hammer spring.I would work on getting it sighted in correctly

I'm just going to put the locking piece in first, I want to see how much I gain since the shoulders are really worn back and galled bright. Other than adjusting the front sight, (with a pair of cheap manicure scissors I bought at Walmart) it shoots 10 inches high at 100 yards and a couple inches to the left. Knock on wood, it does perform flawlessly with Chinese steel core, I should of bought the whole ammo can, this is some accurate ammo. I'll let everyone know how things turn out with the new parts. Thanks for your time.